March 08, 2006

Morning Notes: March 8, 2006

More in an irregularly occurring series when there's news to discuss and not the time to do it.

This morning, Apple added Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" to the iTunes Music Store, and in a unique twist, set up a subscription process, where customers can pay $9.99 now, and not only receive the most recent show, but the next fifteen, as they air and become available. Effectively, that brings each episode to you for the low, low price of 66 cents each - contrasted with $1.99 being the typical fare for a 30-minute or 60-minute broadcast. It sets the stage for additional subscription-based services, a break from its buy and own model.

Yesterday, Microsoft revamped its search engine... again... in an attempt to take on Google for the world's most thorough Internet archive and index. Moving from MSN.com to its new Live.com, quasi-Web 2.0 site, the new search engine closely mimics Google's personal homepage service for customization and saved searches. However, in my attempts to use the site on Mac OS X, with both Safari and Firefox, results have been less than outstanding.

Additionally, Google's premature announcement of GDrive also included some presentation notes discussing forward looking financials, which forced the company to further disclose the data, according to SEC regulations. Due to their mistakes, their stock is getting hammered to the tune of $10 a share, and the media says after a series of financial missteps, "this one takes the cake" for the young, fast-moving company.